SOE Live 2012: EverQuest's Rain of Fear includes offline selling and item progression

If you think that after 13 years and 18 expansions there is nothing new left to do for EverQuest, you don't know Sony Online Entertainment very well! In fact, developers at SOE Live 2012 announced a bunch of new features and content for the game's upcoming 19th expansion, Rain of Fear. Due out on November 28th, this expansion has plenty of things for players to enjoy. And by plenty, we mean more than you can shake a dragon at. And trust us, there are lots of dragons, too!

Besides an enormous tree (that's like its own zone), an aggro meter, tons of dragons, a slayer system, and a collection system, EverQuest players will find a more robust and flexible broker system, over 3000 new tradeskill recipes, more than 1800 new spells, and a new item progression system. And that's really just the tip of the iceberg.

Remote brokering

How many times have you been out and about with when you realize you needed to purchase something but there is not a store in sight? With modern technology, we can go access various mobile devices and purchase something to be delivered to our homes. Developers understand that EQ players can run into the same situation. Down in the deep bowels of some dungeon or hidden far away in some remote area, players may find themselves in need of items to continue their adventuring. That's where the new autonomous brokering system comes into play.

As reported previously, players will have the option to have brokered items delivered either to their mailboxes or directly into their bags. This will definitely be a boon to anyone who needs an item immediately but is nowhere near a mailbox. But that's not the only benefit. Not only does this souped up brokering system provide delivery flexibility to players, but it boosts the use of the brokering system as a whole.

Players no longer have to weigh how much they really need an item vs. the hassle of traveling back to a zone in order to access it. You can literally buy from anywhere in Norrath.

Buyers aren't the only ones who benefit; sellers have plenty of reasons to rejoice, too. This new system encourages window shopping, which will most certainly result in more purchases. Imagine it: You're sitting out at a dungeon entrance, waiting on your group, so you just start window shopping to pass the time. And the selection of items will be much broader than previously experienced by EQ veterans because the game now supports offline selling. WOOO! That's right; a player no longer has to be logged in for her items to be listed on the broker. Permanent listings mean more items are available for buyers to buy when they want to buy. Buyers get what they want, and sellers can better move their merchandise... where is the downside in that?

One hundred levels of EQ on the wall...

The increase in the level cap to 100 necessitates the addition of new skills and abilities for those levels, and players will find a plethora of them. In fact, the game will have over 1800 new spells (ranks one, two, and three), over 550 AAs, and more than 3000 new crafting recipes. As expected in a game with the word "quest" in its name, players will have many more quests to work through -- over 110 of them. If players do just the quests in the expansions, you will level to 100. Completing just the collection quests will give players a full level.

Expanding the world

The SOE Live keynote touched on the Breeding Grounds (who won't love wall-to-wall dragons?), Befallen, and Shard's Landing, but those are only three of the nine new zones coming in the expansion. The devs explained how they wanted to involve older zones and areas in the expansion, like Eastern Wastes. And along with the new zones, there are 13 new raids for players to dive into and collect rewards from.

Among the folks getting their hands/paws/claws on falling fear shards for their power is a large and powerful dragon who uses it to basically make his own reality, upsetting the balance of power in the war between the dragons, the coldain, and giants.

But wait! There's more!

Rain of Fear has many more systems and features coming to the game. Over 3,500 new items will be introduced to game, including items specifically designed for each class, armor that increases in stats when you move to another tier, and non-visible armor pieces that can be worn by anyone. These all-inclusive pieces allowing folks to stack whichever stats they want to regardless of class and customize their stats to match the needs of specific encounters. Keep an eye out for more information on these systems; we'll share more details as soon as they are available.

You can preorder Rain of Fear on the official site in either a standard or collector's digital version, each with special preorder bonuses. And for a limited time, the Collector's Edition will be only $59.99 US, a $30 savings from the original price.